The 'Reading Rainbow' host reacted to the petition on Thursday.
Levar Burton would be "flattered" to be considered as the next host of Jeopardy! Over 83,000 fans have signed a Change.org petition calling for the Reading Rainbow host to step in following the heartbreaking death of Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek.
Trebek died last Sunday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80.
"Between hosting 21 seasons of the educational Reading Rainbow, playing the brainiac engineer Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: the Next Generation, and filling the roll of Kunta Kinte in the ever important mini-series Roots, LeVar Burton has inspired and shaped the minds of several generations of trivia-loving nerds," the Change.org petition reads. "This petition is to show Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and producers Mike Richards and Harry Friedman just how much love the public has for Burton, and how much we'd all love to see him as the next host of Jeopardy!"
Burton reacted to the petition on Thursday, writing on Twitter, "Even if nothing comes from it, I can’t tell how much how I appreciate all y’alls love and support! 🙏🏾♥️."
Trebek joked about his successor in an interview with Good Morning America in July.
"I joke with the audience all the time and I say, 'Betty White,' because they want somebody younger, somebody funnier," he said of the 98-year-old actress. "Betty and I have been friends for a long, long time."
In 2018, Trebek gave two other names for his possible replacement, Los Angeles Kings play-by-play announcer Alex Faust and CNN legal analyst Laura Coates.
"I mentioned to my producer before that the fellow who does play-by-play for the Los Angeles Kings, they should consider him," he said on OBJECTified of Faust, before turning to Coates.
"There is an attorney, Laura Coates, she's African American and she appears on some of the cable news shows from time to time," he said.
See more on Trebek in the video below.
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